Arsenal Vs Spurs: Gary Neville’s praise is deserved

Gary Neville has stated that is the best performance that he has seen from an Arsenal side. The Gunners were excellent. They are fully deserving of his praise.

The story of Saturday’s North London derby was far from the expected one. Tottenham Hotspur, the best team in the Premier League over the last two full seasons, arriving at a downhearted and downtrodden Arsenal. There was only one way this was going to go. Or not.

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The opening moments set the tone. Arsenal on the offensive, thrusting their foot on the throat of their visitors; Spurs reeling from the shock. The first goal, though, came in controversial fashion. A foul, apparently, was awarded. A Mesut Ozil free kick. A Shkodran Mustafi header. A hint of offside. A raucous crowd. 1-0.

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The second did not take much longer. Hector Bellerin slips in the ever-moving Alexandre Lacazette, who, in turn, fires a low cross into the box, that Alexis Sanchez bundles under his control before smashing the shot into the roof of the net. 2-0. Game over.

The performance led Gary Neville to a somewhat glowing appraisal of the performance. This is a part of what he said during Sky’s coverage after the game:

"“But that’s as good as I’ve seen Arsenal, it really is. I wondered after ten minutes would they be able to keep it up? Is it just a bold start that would fizzle out? But it was a really, really good performance. Overall, my assessment of the game today was [that] Arsenal were absolutely fantastic from number one to 11. There wasn’t a poor performer.”"

And his assessment is deserved. The result, despite being in and of itself invaluable, pales in comparison to the vibrancy of the performance.

Arsene Wenger’s side played with a relentless pace and intensity. They pressed and pressed and pressed, hounding the Spurs players throughout the whole of the pitch, utterly unrelenting in their pursuit of possession. This suffocated Spurs, never allowing them time and space to play in and out of the midfield. They were forced into long and aimless passes, which were easily dealt with by the defence, before initiating further attacks. Dominant would be the word.

The way in which Spurs were not allowed any room to breathe was what was most pleasing. The players that are in the squad have always looked at their most comfortable and their most threatening when they play on the offensive. Wenger adopted that approach on Saturday.

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Neville was somewhat gushing in his praise. Sometimes, the winning team are a little over-celebrated simply by virtue of being the winning the team. They may not have deserved. Here, that is not the case. Arsenal deserve every single word. They were truly magnificent.